Norman Antivirus is antivirus software that also protects against spyware and malware such as worms, Trojan horses, rootkits and spyware. It has a few attributes that are out of the ordinary: one license is good for three PCs, it has a protective screensaver, and it is ready for Windows 8.
Norman’s headquarters are in Norway. There are also Norman offices in:

• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• The Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• United States

Performance
Norman Antivirus is certified by ICSA Labs and Virus Bulletin 100. It is also tested by AV-Test, an important independent test facility, but it does not receive the highest AV-Test scores.

Features
This antivirus software has a simple user interface. An installation wizard automatically detects the applications that require internet access and then creates rules for them. It is easy to manage the license. The code is written in such a way that it uses relatively little memory and does not tax the CPU. It has a pop-up blocker and it scans email and instant messages. The product includes a screensaver with a malware scanner.

Norman Antivirus uses a few methods to identify and neutralize threats that have yet to appear in the threat-signature database. The software detects hacking attempts to exploit code in typically harmless files. It detects zero-day outbreaks by inspecting file types that hackers often exploit: PDF, Microsoft Office and Flash. It evaluates the shellcode for each of these file types and compares them to the shellcode on legitimate programs to identify any differences. (Shellcode is a piece of code that hackers can exploit to take control of a local or remote machine.) Norman Antivirus sends any suspected file to a virtual sandbox to isolate it until its behavior and intentions become clear. With suspected files safely isolated, Norman simulates the operating system environment so that when the malware tries to initiate API calls to delete operating system files, it is allowed to believe that it is accomplishing the task, when all it is doing is harmlessly revealing itself as malware. By detecting and then observing suspicious files, Norman Antivirus protects customers from harm even before the malware is added to the known threat-signature database.

Although this antivirus software doesn’t pretend to be more than an antivirus program, it is missing some features that appear in some of its competitors’ products, such as automatic USB detection or gamer mode.

Help & Support
The online support page is thoughtfully designed. If you are not content with email, United States customers can access telephone support, but there is a charge per incident.